For Good
by Life is Like a Novel
Summary: Buffy convinces Oz to come back to Sunnydale when Willow starts getting worse.


**Alright, so I've kind of taken a huge liking to Oz and Willow and I wanted to try my hand at it so here it is. I am making no profit off of this and it all belongs to Joss. **

Oz was awoken by Devon shaking him roughly. Oz had rented a little pay by the night apartment about an hour and a half outside of Sunnydale while he mapped out his plans for the next couple of months. He knew of some places he wanted to go for sure. Some of the older countries. England of course. He wanted to stop in London and see if the Council could help them. He wasn't sure if they would be too eager, he being Buffy's friend and all but it was worth a shot. He also wanted to go to Africa and Russia. Devon had insisted on staying with him until he left the country and Oz was grateful for the company. It was harder to deal with the hurt when he was there. It was a little bit easier to deal with the loss of Willow while Devon rambled on and on about the pointless things that he had done that day.

"Yo, Oz man! Wake up," he told him.

Oz blinked up at him. He glanced over at the clock. 7:02 AM. He glared at the singer. He had told him the night before that he was planning on sleeping in today. He was planning on leaving for London the next day and wanted to get as much sleep before hand as he could.

Devon held his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Hey, don't get mad at me. There is someone here to see you. One of Willow's friends. Buffy I think her name is. I tried to tell her that you were sleeping and she should come back some other time, but she was pretty insistent."

"What's she doing here?" Oz asked. He rolled out of bed and pulled his jeans on over his boxers while scanning his room for a clean shirt. He spotted one then froze, a look of sheer panic on his face. "Wait," he asked, wiping around to face Devon. "Is Willow okay?"

"I don't know but her friend is pissed. Like really pissed man. God, that chick is scary," Devon shook his head, leaving Oz in his room as he went to his own. He nodded to Buffy on the way, confirming that Oz would be right out.

Oz popped a piece of gum in his mouth, figuring he didn't have time to brush his teeth. He needed to know if Willow was okay.

"Hey," he told his friend- or would be friend. He wasn't actually sure where he stood with her. He did know that Devon was right about the pissed off bit. He was getting the 'Slayer' look. The same look that she had used in reference to Spike when he captured Xander and Willow. His casual tone seemed to only anger her further.

"Hey?" she asked. "You think a quick 'hey' is alright? No, it's not. You do not leave my best friend in crumbling shell of the wonderful girl I love so very dearly and then give me a hey," she warned, taking slow steps closer to him until they were right in front of her. Oz found the small distance between them uncomforting. She could take him if she wanted. She was the Slayer and at that moment it looked like she did want to cause damage and a lot of it at that.

He hesitated to speak, knowing it would most likely make matters worse, but he needed to know. "Is she okay?"

"No she is not okay and as the Slayer it is my job to find and kill the _monsters _that harm the people I care about. I don't want to hurt you Oz. I really don't. You are one of my friends, even in spite of the breakup. However, Willow is my _best _friend. She will always come first. Before you. Before Xander. Before Giles, who is my Watcher. That pretty much makes him like my father and Willow will still come before him. Willow even comes before Angel. She is, in every sense of the word aside from blood, my sister. I love her and I will do anything for her. And because of your stubbornness, I haven't been able to recognize her since you left. She's not herself. No happy Willow. She's not eating, Oz. In the past week and a half we have gotten her to eat maybe enough to add up to one meal. She's getting sick but she won't let us help her. She's having nightmares and is barely there in class. I'm scared for her. She's so distant. I've never seen her so…sad doesn't even begin to cover it. She's broken. You broke her. Now, you go back and fix her or I swear Daniel Osborne, I will come back here and kick your ass then leave your unconscious body out for the vampires to find," she warned, heading towards the door. "She and I are staying with Giles," she turned to tell him before leaving.

Oz stood there for a moment. Willow was getting sick. That wasn't the way it was supposed to work. He left to protect her, not to put her in a condition that could land her in the hospital. He knew Buffy would not hesitate to follow through with his threat. She would feel guilty about it, but she would do it. She was never much for empty threats. He had learned that quickly while he was in the Scooby Gang. "Devon," he called, going into his room and shoving his things in his duffle bag. "Pack up."

"We going back to the 'Dale?" his friend peeped his head outside of his room. His voice was hopeful. He liked Willow. She was good for Oz and she inspired some pretty rock awesome lyrics from the werewolf. Plus, she didn't care about the fact that he was a werewolf. Out of the girls that Oz had dated, or fooled around with, Willow was Devon's favorite.

Oz nodded, grabbing some CDs from the TV stand.

"Going back to get your girl?"

"We leave in five minutes."

Willow came down the stairs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Xander was watching some program on the TV and jumped up when he saw her. He rushed over and hugged her. They were all doing a lot of that since Oz had left. Xander and Buffy. Giles had even wrapped her in an embrace quite a few times. It was if they all thought she would fall apart if one of them wasn't physically holding her together. She wondered if they were onto to something. It did help when they held her. She felt too alone when none of them were with her.

"Hey Wills," he kept an arm around her and led her to the couch. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just woke up with an odd feeling. Where is Buffy?"

"She left about an hour ago. She didn't say where she went." He turned the channel from baseball to a music channel that she really liked.

"Oh," she nodded. "It's okay, you can change it back to sports if you want."

"It's okay. It was a boring game anyways. Are you hungry? I can fix you something if you want. Giles made waffles earlier. I could warm them up for you."

She shook her head. "No, thank you. I'm not really hungry."

Xander looked down with her in concern. "Please eat, Willow. You need to eat."

"Maybe later, Xand. When I eat, it makes me sick. It makes me gag."

"Just a piece of bread or something little."

She shook her head and Xander frowned down at her until she sighed. "Fine, did Giles use all of the blueberries?"

Xander shook his head with a grin. "I'll go get you some. I'll be right back. I promise," he told her when she stiffened as he moved her off of her lap.

She nodded, clutching the pillow to her tightly until he returned with a big bowl of fresh blueberries. Xander asked if she wanted to watch a movie and she nodded telling him he could choose which. He settled on a horror movie. No chance of romance and it was werewolf free so it was sure to keep her mind away from Oz. They sat there for the next hour and half, enjoying the movie. Willow munched on the small fruit. Slowly at first, but then faster when she realized they did not upset her stomach. She ducked her head into Xander's side when the killer jumped out. He chuckled, stroking her hair. They heard the front door open just as the credits began rolling.

"Hey, Wills," Buffy smiled going over to sit next to them on the couch. "What did you have to eat?"

"Blueberries," she told her.

She hugged her tightly, signaling Xander that he could leave if he wanted. "Where's Giles?" she asked.

"He went to get groceries and then he said he was going to go to the Magic Box to pick up a few of the basic ingredients that he was getting low on. He was actually thinking that he and Willow," he turned to face her before continuing, "might want to try out a couple of spells. Just little things like updating the protection spells and little things like that. He was hoping that it would cheer you up."

"That's nice of him."

"Alright, I'm going to go jump in the shower before work. I'll see you later Wills," he said kissing her on the cheek, before going upstairs.

"Can I get you anything else?" Buffy asked.

"No," she shook her head. "I'm fine really."

"Xander's gone Wills, you can tell me honestly how you are doing."

Willow nodded. "Not good. I really appreciate everything that you and Xander and Giles are doing but it's not getting better Buff. How did you do it when Angel left?" she asked crying. Buffy wrapped her in a hug, stroking her hair as she continued, her word's muffled by the other girl's shoulder. "When you said you couldn't breathe then, I didn't know what you meant. I do now. Oz was my everything. I can't…I just-"

"I know," Buffy told her. "I what you're trying to say."

They each sat there for a moment, neither moving until they heard the shower cut off and Xander shouted that he needed a towel. Buffy kissed her forehead. "I'm going to go help him, but then I have to get ready as well. I'm meeting Riley. Are you going to be okay? Giles should be getting home any minute."

"I'll be fine. I'll just read," she told her picking up the book off the side table. "Really."

"Alright," she nodded, going up.

Willow read in silence for a few minutes before she gave up. She wasn't grasping any of the words. They weren't sticking. She decided to fix herself a cup of tea while she waited for Giles to come home. Xander came down, just as the kettle began to whistle.

"I'm off, Wills," Xander told her. He hugged her before leaving. He stopped at the door. Willow couldn't make out why from the kitchen.

"You okay Xand?" she asked, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"I'm going to let you take this one. I have to get to work," Xander shook his head, moving past the man and to his car.

Willow came out of the kitchen and dropped her tea cup in the process. They both ignored it. "Oz?" she asked confused. She stared at him, emotions flashing through her. She wanted to smack him. She wanted to step forward and have him wrap her into a hug. She wanted to yell for Buffy to come down. She would deal with him. Instead, as if her knees couldn't hold her anymore, she dropped down into a squat, her face cradled in her hands as she cried. Oz did the only thing he could think of. He came over and pulled her up gently by his arms. "You're going to cut yourself," he told her nodding down to the broken glass. He held her close to him, her shoulders racking as she sobbed harder. He could feel how skinny she had gotten since he had left and he frowned, knowing it was his fault. He could feel her spine and ribs through her shirt and he rubbed her back, assuring her it was all going to be okay. He took in other things as he held her like the fact that she had been using another shampoo. It was too tropical, nothing like the usual fruity designer shampoo she favored. It had to guess it was either Buffy's or something that Giles had in the guest bedroom. My bet was on it being Buffy's. "I'm sorry," I whispered in her ear as I held her closer still. "I'm so, so sorry."

Once her sobs had died down enough that she could talk, she pulled away looking up at him. "Are you back for good?"

He nodded, observing the way that her eyes had lost everything that defined them before. The spark and laughter were gone. They were empty, broken. Just like Buffy had said. _He _had broken her. They were red and puffy. He knew she would have cried. He expected it. However, it was one thing to know that she would be in pain and another to see her breaking down in front of him…in his arms. "Yeah, Willow," he said, pulling her into another hug. "I'm here for good. Right here."

He could put himself through the torture of that pain. Hell, he was pretty sure he_ deserved_ that type of pain but he couldn't put her through that. She _didn't_ deserve that. His Willow could never deserve that type of pain. He would have to find another way to tame the wolf inside him. Now that he had her in his arms again, he was never going to be able to leave. She had almost convinced him to stay the first time around. He couldn't leave her now. He would never be able to leave her again. Never.

**Well, there we have it folks. Tell me what you thought. Yes, I know Oz coming back has been done a hundred times over, but I wanted to add my own little go to the pile. **

**Love,  
Spike. **

**(I think I need to find a new name to sign with for my Buffy stories…)**


End file.
